Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Government's welfare reforms on (a) trends in the levels of child poverty and (b) the child poverty reduction strategy.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts.
This Government have inherited unacceptably high levels of child poverty which is why delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority. The Child Poverty Taskforce are progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy and are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published here alongside the Spring Statement.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of individuals that will have their benefit funding reduced under the Government's proposed welfare reforms.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department published an Impact Analysis alongside the Spring Statement on 26 March 2025.
This document contains forecast estimates of the numbers of individuals who will be affected by the proposed welfare reforms.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the planned changes to welfare benefits on (a) families, (b) children and (c) families in poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the child poverty strategy will consider the potential merits of removing the (a) two-child limit and (b) benefit cap.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is continuing its urgent work and is exploring all available levers, including considering social security reforms, to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to extend the child poverty strategy beyond the planned 10-year timeframe to set longer term goals to help tackle child poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy, and we are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.
Our focus is on bringing about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, thereby reversing the trend that is seeing forecasts of child poverty continuing to increase. More details, including on the time horizon, will be set out in the strategy publication.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with (a) neurological conditions and (b) multiple sclerosis are using the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does collect information on the primary medical condition of Access to Work recipients, however we do not hold information to the level required to identify people with neurological conditions. Therefore, we are not able to make an estimate of the number of people living with neurological conditions that are receiving support through the Access to Work scheme.
Information on the number of Access to Work recipients with multiple sclerosis is not readily available. Details of an individual’s specific disability/medical condition is stored as descriptive, free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and therefore falls outside of the costs limit.
Information on Access to Work volumes and expenditure by primary medical condition are published annually in the Access to Work official statistics: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time is for support to be granted to a claimant applying to the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The average waiting time for a decision to be made on support for a claimant applying for Access to Work was 56.9 days from April 2024 to February 2025. We are consulting on this in the Green Paper and aim to reduce times.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are on income-related Employment and Support Allowance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In August 2024 there were around 6,500 people on income-related ESA with multiple sclerosis as their main condition.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of work intensification on the ability of incapacity benefit claimants to (a) find and (b) maintain paid employment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made. This government is commitment to supporting disabled people in finding and maintaining employment. We plan to establish a Disability Advisory Panel to ensure that the voices of disabled people are at the heart of the reforms set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper. The government aims to support more disabled people to find and thrive in employment, thereby reducing the disability employment gap. Additionally, we will set out reforms to health and disability benefits to ensure the system supports people who can work to remain in or start employment in a way that is fair and fiscally sustainable.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the financial impact of the Access to Work scheme to the UK economy.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has not made an estimate of the financial impact of the Access to Work scheme to the UK economy and currently does not have plans to do so. It’s impact is important, however, in enabling people to work who would not otherwise be able to do so.